Hello. This is the first edition of the SIGMAA on Statistics Education Newsletter. I finally got some submissions! For all you members out there, we hope to have a significant means of communication. I can’t be the sole writer of this communication, so please send submissions to me (Pat Humphrey, phumphre@gasou.edu.) Almost anything of interest to those who teach statistics – interesting web sites, textbook reviews (there’s always that decision to be made, calendar items, short articles is considered of value here. Let’s hope that we can continue to prosper.
It is hard to believe we are nearing the halfway point in the fall semester, and that the next JMMs are around the corner. I guess I have reached that age where time really does fly! I hope that this letter finds all of you well and enjoying your semester.
The SIGMAA sponsored its first field trip - a visit to Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream in Vermont this past August as part of MathFest. Bob Hollister told me that the group had a great tour of the facility followed by a session with their quality control staff who explained how things are done at the facility. From my perspective, they must be doing things right because they make great ice cream! Are there other Cherry Garcia fans out there?
The SIGMAA has over 500 members, which is wonderful. There is interest in statistics education among mathematicians. And they are doing wonderful things in the classes they teach, if the proposals submitted for the Contributed Paper Session in Baltimore are a representative sample. Carolyn Cuff and I reviewed them all and had a hard time choosing from the many good papers that were submitted. Carolyn has asked six presenters to prepare for an extended session so that they can involve the audience as students. I imagine that both presenters and audience members will gain from this approach. Save Friday and Saturday mornings for these sessions.
For the first time in a long time, I am not teaching a semester course in Statistics. I am teaching short units in Statistics and Probability for our preservice elementary students, and I bemoan the fact that the time is so short. Lately, my work has taken me into Rhode Island middle schools to observe and work with teachers on standards-based instruction. Many teachers are using reform curriculum materials in which probability and descriptive statistics have a prominent place, but sadly, many teachers have very inadequate backgrounds in these areas. The 'ahas' that teachers have during our workshops are great for them and their students, but they occur in areas that I consider to be fundamental statistical concepts, including shape, center, spread. I can't help but think of Liping Ma's book from which the expression 'profound understanding of fundamental mathematics' or PUFM (pronounced puffem) emerged, and I want to say that there is a great need for PUFSI or profound understanding of fundamental statistics ideas among middle school teachers. If you have the chance, please offer your expertise-the next generation of our students will be stronger for it.
Speaking of the next generation, the SIGMAA is sponsoring a panel discussion at the JMM in January entitled "The State of Statistics Education." It takes place on Saturday afternoon. The speakers are all excellent and have combined expertise that spans the statistics spectrum. Tom Moore of Grinnell College in Iowa, who led the American Statistical Association (ASA) team charged with giving feedback to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) on their latest version of content standards, is the moderator. Joan Garfield, who is soon to become the Chair of the Section on Statistics Education for the ASA, will share with us how the first course in statistics has changed over the past ten years. Gail Burrill, former president of NCTM, will prompt us to think about the changes that the college statistics course might make to accommodate for increased statistical understanding among high school graduates. Allan Rossman, mindful of the impact of the AP exam in statistics, will discuss what a second course at the college level might look like and have us consider statistics courses that are data based for students who have taken calculus. There will be time for audience participation, so I hope you will join us.
Our SIGMAA meeting is Thursday evening. Please come prepared to participate in discussion about creating an activity resource book for teachers of statistics. Carolyn and I have been approached to consider this, but we need your help. If you have a great activity that you would like us to consider, bring it with you to the meeting.
Elections are coming up. Dex Whittinghill, past chair, serves as head of the Nominating Committee, so look for email from him in the next few weeks. When the slate is finished, please vote!
Take care.
Mary Sullivan, Chairperson, Rhode Island College
Ben & Jerry’s Tour at MathFest
Submitted by Bob Hollister,
Jacksonville University
SIGMAA Stat Treasurer
At Mathfest 2002, the SIGMAA on Statistics Education sponsored a statistics tour of Ben & Jerry’s in Waterbury, VT for members of the SIGMAA. (Space permitting, nonmembers were allowed on the tour, but had to pay $15 for transportation. There was no charge for members.) Our chair, Mary Sullivan, arranged the tour and arranged for transportation from the convention center with Mountain Transit, Inc.
Eleven (11) of us went on the tour and all enjoyed it. We left the convention center in a school bus shortly after Robin Lock’s talk (Fun and Games for Teaching Statistics). Robin went on the tour.
We took the regular tour, accompanied by Daron Byerly (Ben & Jerry’s statistician). During the tour we got to taste some Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (Cherry Garcia and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough) and then shop in their gift store.
When we met with Daron for about an hour afterwards, he told us about:
1) statistical process control (SPC) applications to B & J’s production line,
2) the software he uses for SPC (Infinity QM),
3) the training in statistics that he gives the employees of B & J’s (He gave each of us a copy of the workbook he had developed.),
4) some experiments he had designed (He gave us handouts on them).
We had many questions for Daron and he had a few for us. Since he is primarily concerned with limiting the variance in the production processes, Daron was especially interested in any advice we could give him about analyzing variance in multifactor experiments where the data is not normal.
After the interesting hour with Daron, we returned to Mathfest, arriving just in time for the beginning of the afternoon sessions.
Note: The participants were: Nkechi Agwu, Bob Hollister, Larry Knop (and two undergrads from Hamilton College), Robin Lock, Deborah Lurie (and her husband, Barry), Claire McAndrew, and Jon Scott (and guest).
SIGMAA on Statistics Education
at the Joint Statistical Meetings
Submitted by: Dex Whittinghill,
Rowan University
SIGMAA Stat Past Chair
This last August 11-15, the Joint Statistical Meetings (JSMs) were held in New York City. This yearly meeting was sponsored by several organizations, and this year they were the American Statistical Association (ASA), the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the International Biometrics Society’s Eastern and Western North American Regions, and the Statistical Society of Canada. Although the JSM program does not show it, your SIGMAA on Stat Ed sponsored a Topic Contributed Panel titled "The Role of Undergraduate Mathematics for Statistics and Vice Versa." We sponsored it in the sense that ‘yours truly’ organized the panel and the SIGMAA helped to cover the travel expenses of the mathematicians on the panel. An ASA Topic Contributed Panel is not quite as prestigious as one of its Invited Panels, but it WAS a panel and the five speakers WERE invited!
The panel presented the highlights of the CRAFTY (Curriculum Reform and the First Two Years) workshop held in October of 2000, at Grinnell College, where mathematicians and statisticians discussed "What aspects of the undergraduate mathematics curriculum are of most value to statistics?" It was one of many workshops where mathematicians exchanged information and ideas with client and partner disciplines (like statistics). The Grinnell workshop participants added two questions of their own:
What statistical concepts are important for students in mathematical science?
What statistical concepts are important for students in quantitative disciplines?
One of the 17 reports that resulted from these meetings is the one for statistics. To see it, go to the website
http://academic.bowdoin.edu/faculty/B/barker/dissemination/Curriculum_Foundations/
and look for CF_Statistics.doc.
The speakers in the panel were to be Deborah Hughes Hallett of the University of Arizona, Steven B. Horton of the U.S. Military Academy, Robert R. Starbuck of Wyeth Research, Kay B. Somers of Moravian College, and Allan Rossman of Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. All five were at the Grinnell workshop, with Deborah, Steve and Kay as mathematicians, and Bob and Allan as statisticians. Deborah gave the background for the workshops, deciphered what CRAFTY and CUPM (Committee on Undergraduate Programs in Mathematics, of which CRAFTY is a subcommittee) were, and gave an overview of CRAFTY questions. Then Steve talked about the ‘Understanding and Content’ questions, Bob the ‘Technology’ questions, Steve the ‘Instructional Interconnections and Techniques’ questions (he had to present Kay’s slides at the last minute), and Allan the ‘place of statistics within the mathematics curriculum’ question. You can read the report for details!
Top 10 reasons to be a Statistician
(Courtesy, American Statistical Association)
10. Deviation is considered Normal.
9. You feel complete and sufficient.
8. You always wanted to learn the entire Greek alphabet anyway.
7. You can legally comment on someone’s posterior distribution.
6. You may not be normal but you are transformable.
5. You never have to say you are certain.
4. You are honestly significantly different.
3. You never have to be right - only close.
2. Estimating parameters is easier than dealing with real life.
1. Statisticians are Normal, everyone else is skewed.
SIGMAA Stat at Baltimore
(from the Editor.)
To reiterate from Mary’s Letter, don’t forget the following SIGMAA events at the JMMs.